Psychiatry begins and ends with our patients—with their
diseases and dysfunctions, their biographies and aspirations—which,
as a clinical medical science, we must systematically study. Doing that, we
will borrow from and pose problems for all the life sciences. New knowledge
about how cells and biological systems acquire, code, and exchange information
challenges all of medicine.—Daniel X. Freedman, MD, 19921
What fascinated me most was how intimate relationships and the
desire for being with the other precede the rest of cognitive development,
and that this social motivation moves these other achievements forward, including
meta-representation and theories about other minds. This intuitive, deeply
encoded social orientation is first expressed in the mother's arms and then
forms the basis for all future I-Thou relationships.—Donald J. Cohen,
MD, 20012